We Are Scout blog launch

Two of my favourite Australian bloggers (and friends), Lisa from the red thread and Rebecca from WeeBirdy, have teamed up to create a brand new lifestyle blog - We Are Scout - which launched today. I know you'll love it.

Bondville Workshops

I just finished running an amazing workshop in my studio in Beecroft today. Michelle from MeWe, Kendall from Rainbow Lantern and Karen from Evocartv photography shared, chatted, connected, ate cupcakes, drank tea and listened to me preach the word about Blogging for Business. So great!

Blogging For Business Workshop

I'm hosting my next Blogging For Business workshop at my studio in Beecroft, NSW next week. If you have a small business and have wanted to use your website effectively to drive sales, this workshop is for you! Join four other small business owners and learn the basics of using a blog/news/update section and the basics of social media. (I have another social media workshop which goes into more depth). Leave the workshop with an action plan!

If you are interested in attending this session head to my workshop page. 

NEW LOOK BONDVILLE

Surprise! I know that I've mentioned a few times that I have been working with Lisa (the red thread) on a re-design for Bondville. Ta da!!!  I am so excited about it - it's a fresh look for Bondville that allows the Australian-designed products I feature to really shine, which is a huge priority for me.

Did you see the gorgeous Bondville logo that Lisa hand drew?!? She is so talented and I am thrilled to have her mark on my site.

This is Phase I of the makeover - what do you think? (OK, don't really tell me - I only want to hear good things). You'll see some tweaks and changes continue over the next few days (read 'weeks'), so please bear with me if you notice any glitches.

Here's a little snapshot of the old design which served me so well at the time.

Huge thanks go to Lisa for interpreting my vision and creating a phenomenal logo and helping me with layout choices and style. Also thanks to my dear Harris who is always patient with me and always helpa out when my html skills lack (like overriding template styles in CSS - he is so cool). I'll let  you know when we get to Phase II, but in the meantime, enjoy and look around!
Steph
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Voices of 2013 awards - top 25 Creative and Home blogs

Holy Moley. That's all I can say. I was beyond thrilled to receive an email from Kidspot to say that I was a finalist in the Voices of 2013 awards - one of the top 25 Creative and Home blogs in Australia. And then... I saw the finalists page on the site and just about fell off my chair. Look - it's me! And look at the callibre of the bloggers on there - Pia Jane Bijkerk!!! Eat Drink Chic!!! the red thread!!! And more! The food, fashion and parenting categories are amazing too. This is some serious business:

I'm incredibly honoured and flattered. On Saturday night I went to the Voices of 2013 launch  in Sydney (grinning from ear-to-ear) and met some of my favourite bloggers and re-connected with others.

I hadn't seen Maddie from Colour Me There since high school (what are the chances!), got to meet Pip from Meet Me At Mike's and Bron (maxabella loves) for the first time, and Cintia from My Poppet who is just as much fun in real life. It was great catching up with Lisa (the red thread), Viv (ish & chi), Lexi (pottymouthmama), Babs (Patchwork Cactus), Susie (Flowerpress), Rebecca (Wee Birdy), and Belinda (The Happy Home).

And there were new friends to make too. Ali from At Home With Ali is just about the loveliest person you will ever meet and has an incredible blog full of ideas for being creative with kids. And Alana from HouseGoesHome who is warm, engaging, super-interesting, and just about the best blog writer I have ever met - her site is a hoot! (And she was wearing the Marc Jacobs mouse shoes... and she has just been to a southern wedding in North Carolina... there was too much fabulousness going on).

I spent all evening gas-bagging, and not taking photos, but there are lots to see on Instagram and Twitter (#voicesof2013). When Kidspot posts all the photos from the night I will share then with you. The awards program runs all year with some great prizes (including a trip to NYC, writing contracts and Ford cars!), so I will let you know how it progresses. But seriously, I'm overwhelmed to just be a finalist.

Thank you Kidspot, justb., Vogue, Taste.com.au, and sponsors Ford and The Good Guys!

All about blog etiquette

I guess I have some pretty strong opinions about blogging. Most of them revolve around the concept of 'Respect'. Respect for others' words, images, ideas, talents, skills and effort. So when I had the opportunity to write a piece about blog etiquette, I jumped at it, as I hope that I can share my experience with respectful blogging, in particular with those new to the game. If you're interested to find out more (I have a large section on the legal issues around copyright, words, and images), head to eBay's Mum's Business for the full article "Blog Etiquette - a How-to Guide". I would *love* to get your input too. Please comment away...

Image:  PublicDomainPictures via pixabay.com

Big Art: an interview with Karla from Join The Big Picture Blog

My BFF Karla is one part of Pfeifer Thompson Creative (the other part being her husband Leon of Leonhard Pfeifer furniture-designer fame, with whom she collaborates). Karla is based in the very cool East London and has been showcasing Big Art as part of her project Join The Big Picture Blog. There she is above with her gorgeous daughter. I interviewed Karla to find out all about her inspirations, international Big Art and how we can participate too.


Karla, what is Join The Big Picture Blog in a nutshell?
The vision of Join the Big Picture Blog is to inspire and engage with a virtual audience through scale. Historically, artists have always worked big, and nowadays, those boundaries are being pushed to the limits. Nowadays art can’t simply be categorised as painting or sculpture. It takes on many forms, and is about expression and connecting.

Whether large-scale art is in the form of photos from the Hubble space telescope, live sharks floating in tanks of formaldehyde, rooms full of dots, concrete sculptures cast from Victorian buildings or hand knitted blankets wrapped around trees, it’s all around us. Join the Big Picture aims to spark conversations and inspire.

You've been posting about Big Art in both Australia/NZ and the UK. Do you own a private jet?
Oh that would be nice. No, unfortunately I am a servant of long haul airlines. Living in London with my daughters grandparents in both Australia and New Zealand, we trip back and forth across the globe at regular intervals.

London is a fantastic city to live in and is full of exciting artwork. There is such a buzz here. From street art and public sculpture to arts festivals and gallery openings, art really is a part of the city life with interesting instillations popping up unexpectedly, both officially and unofficially.

Who is your favourite large-scale Australian artist?
John Dahlsen is an amazing artist with fantastic vision and ethics. He collects man-made flotsam and jetsam; plastic, polystyrene, wire, string etc… from the beaches in Australia, categorises the rubbish and creates wonderful landscape collages. I first saw his work in Brisbane at an independent gallery in the 90’s. Close up, the large framed boxes, approximately 1m x 2m in are just full of rubbish. However, when you stepped back, the colour graduations, patterns and textures revealed the most wonderful beach landscapes. They were both beautiful and sad at the same time.

I also saw his Primary Totems at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Australia in 2010. They are a poignant reminder of how we are affecting our planet, in particular the Pacific Ocean.

Another artist working in a similar way is American artist Chris Jordan, who I featured on Join the Big Picture for Climate Week.

Do you have to be Big to make big art?
Gosh no. My daughter loves painting on a really big scale. We just hosted her 4th birthday party with the theme of messy play. Together with her friends, they mixed 10 litres of poster paint into bowls, turning it into a wonderfully murky brown and then painted with their hands - and at moments with their elbows - onto a 10m roll of paper we laid out on the grass. The result was, um, let use the word ‘impressive’. This was, after all her first collaborative work.

I think the key to working on large-scale pieces is having the vision and patience to persevere, and see the process through to the end.

Have you created any Big Art yourself?
Since arriving in London 11 years ago my focus has moved to producing large-scale corporate artwork digitally. Working on my computer and then printing the final work onto canvas and framing. One of my favourite more recent pieces was a commission I completed for a property management group that build skyscrapers across the world. The final triptych of 3 canvases measured 3.9m X 2.4m high in size. It is enormous and hangs in the foyer of their corporate headquarters here in London. The client’s response to the initial concept was “We love it - but can we change everything to our corporate blue?” That’s the great thing about working digitally.

I have a studio in Hackney, East London. It’s an amazing area; raw and industrial, nothing at all like the London you see on film or postcards. The neighbouring Hackney Wick area is renowned a creative centre and more artists per capita than anywhere else in the world. It is a great place for inspiration.

I love a bit of yarn-bombing as it feels like something we can all do to participate in Big Art. Do you know of any other large-scale crafty activities that we could look out for?
Yarn bombing is so much fun and as a novice knitter - I took me a year to knit one pair of socks… - it makes me really happy to see these yarn bomb installations pop up around over town.

On a more surreal note, there is a local artist who has been potato-bombing bus stops for years. He paints potatoes in fluorescent colours, and sticks toothpicks through them to create prickly objects, that are then left on the roofs of bus shelters. You don’t notice them unless you are on the top level of the bus. He is having another flurry around town, so they have been popping up, fresh, again. Even though the objects are small, they cover a large geographical area, so are within the bounds of the big picture vision. Random gorilla art like this is one of the reasons I love living in London.

Thanks for sharing a bit about your creative interests Karla; do you have anything else on the horizon that we should check out?

Both Damien Hirst and Yayoi Kusama are having exhibitions at the Tate Modern. I have already been to the Hirst show, and have tickets for Kusama in May.

The Kusama exhibition will be very interesting for me, as I saw her exhibition at the GOMA in Queensland last year. It will be interesting to see how her work changes in different environments. Plus, stay tuned for a piece on the Join The Big Picture Blog about the elusive East London potato bomber.
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Thank you so much Karla for inspiring us to look at Big Art! For more information head over to Karla's website Join The Big Picture Blog.

Images: Karla Thompson for Join The Big Picture Blog

The Best of Bondville - monthly newsletter

Did you know that you can sign up for a monthly email showcasing the best of Bondville for the month? It's a super-convenient way to get your fix of Aussie design, especially if you're a bit on the busy side (who isn't?).

The latest Best of Bondville monthly newsletter for April 2011 just came out. Grab a hot cuppa and check it out right here. It's chock-full of great Australian design for Mum, Kids and Home all in one email. You can subscribe right here :)

Steph

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Image: Steph Bond

Top 25 Kids' Style Blogs - I need your vote

Hi friends,

Circle of Moms is hosting the Top 25 Kids' Style Blogs awards and there are some amazing kids blogs that have been nominated. I'm thrilled to have Bondville and Bondville Kids on the list and would love your help to make the Top 25 by 9th May 2011.

I'm currently sitting at #31 with 212 votes which is fantastic. I'm pretty sure that #1 is out of reach (1376 votes!) but I would love to make the Top 25. The blog at #25 currently has 335 votes, so I probably need another 170+ votes to make it in. Will you help me out?

All you need to do is click here to reach the Bondville and Bondville Kids voting page, then click on the orange "thumbs up". That's it! So fast, and you don't need to register. You can vote every day until 9th May 2011.

While you are there, check out the other amazing blogs on the list. There are so many great sites - I've found lots of new favourites.

Thank you so much - have fun!

Steph

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Chocolate Mint Icebox Dessert

Whether it's flooding, a crazy cyclone, bushfires or 40 degree temps, we've all got a lot to be disturbed about at the moment. So I thought I would cheer us up with this fantastic chocolate-mint icebox dessert from the great Inside The Kaganoff Kitchen website. I repinned this image on Pinterest a few days ago and it has gone nuts on there - everyone seems to love it. So I thought you might too. Keep cool and keep safe everybody.

Steph
xxx

Image: Inside The Kaganoff Kitchen

Your 5 Favourite Posts of 2010

Last week I was compiling your favourite 5 posts of December 2010 for the Bondville newsletter the and thought it would be fun to see what your favourite posts were for the whole year.

You all loved the For Kids category - by far the most popular section on the site. Some of the bigger posts from the last few years were still extremely popular - the tissue paper pom trend (still going!), the Australian cupcake directory, Kristen Doran's matryoshka doll craft panel fabric (another trend that's still strong) and the opening of Donna Hay's general store.

But let's look at what you loved from new content that I was writing in 2010 while managing a new baby and a toddler. Here we go!

1. Bondville Big Girls' Bedroom: with a new baby it was time for our big girl to take over the guest room, and boy did she do it in style with a divine new quilt from Nanna and tissue paper poms (again!) hanging above.

2. Bondville 3-year-old Birthday Party: my big girl's pink extravaganza for her 3rd birthday. Everyone loves a party pic or two!

3. Hip Products: MOZI Cockatoo Lamp: I'm glad that you all love cockatoos as much as I do. I'm kind of obsessed. Which is why this lamp from MOZI is perfect for me.

4. Lara Cameron For The Wall Sticker Company: Last year The Wall Sticker Company were clever to partner with some amazing Australian designers and release limited edition wall stickers using their designs. I love Lara's birch tree design translated to wall art.

5. Hip Products: Bholu Wallpaper: Another clever company collaborating with Australian designers (and I'm all about that) is Porter's Paints who last year released a fantastic selection of Bholu-designed wallpaper for adults and nurseries. I have a small corkboard in our baby's room that I covered up with Majorie the Duck wallpaper in papaya. It's gorgeous.

Loved your picks! Let's see what 2011 brings us.

Steph

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Australian Christmas 2010: lemon tree lane

lemon tree lane is the beautiful stationery brand of graphic designer and blogger extraordinaire Amanda Fuller. Based in Sydney, Amanda has created a great range of greeting cards and gift tags for Christmas 2010 in a cool retro-inspired palette of chartreuse, mustard, teal and raspberry. The bauble gift tags could even double as ornaments!

And the cherry on top? Amanda's carbon neutral stationery is printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper manufactured with non-polluting wind power in a chlorine free environment. Cards are paired with recycled kraft (brown) paper envelopes.

You can find lemon tree lane paper goods in the etsy store (today only - Cyber Monday! - you'll find 10% off all lemon tree lane products) and madeit (Australia) online. And whatever you do, you must must must check out Amanda's fantastic blog Calico & Co. She has a wonderful eye for beauty in everything.

Check out more Australian Christmas 2010 ideas here on Bondville.

Images: lemon tree lane

Featured on Alannah Rose and Easy Peasy Organic

A couple of huge thank-you's today to lovely Suzi and Amanda.
Suzi from Alannah Rose kindly featured my big girl's 3rd birthday party on her gorgeous blog. Suzi designs beautiful stationery for weddings, engagements, new babies, kids parties and more read more about Alannah Rose here on Bondville). Please check out her site.

I'm also so honoured that Bondville was chosen as Blog of the Week by Amanda on Easy Peasy Organic. Check out Amanda's great recipes, tips and hints for living a good life on the site. Amanda also reminds us that it's National Breast Cancer Awareness month, and has written an excellent account of her experience fighting breast cancer here. (you can also read more about Easy Peasy Organic here on Bondville).

Thanks again ladies!

Images: Alannah Rose and Easy Peasy Organic

Guest Post on Modern Kiddo

I'm thrilled and honoured to be Guest Posting over at Modern Kiddo today showcasing five of my favourite Australian kids fashion designers. Can you guess who they are?

Hosted by Alix and Dottie, two stylish San Francisco Mamas, Modern Kiddo is full of glorious colour, fabulous fashion and vintage finds. Alix is working in Prague at the moment and I am so happy to fill in for her; she is one of my favourite friends online - sweet, sassy and super-stylish. Make sure you check the site out and say Hi.

And a big hello to all the Modern Kiddo friends visiting Bondville today. Please have a look around, stay awhile and leave a comment below so I can return the favour. Enjoy!

Featured on Hip Hooray!

I was thrilled to discover today that my big girl's 3rd birthday was featured on the fantastic Hip Hooray! blog on Monday.

Have you checked it out yet? Hip Hooray! is written by Siobhan Watkins and Vanessa Baird who manage the excellent Details, Details online party boutique. Their blog is one of the preeminent party websites in Australia and features lots of inspiring birthday parties, baby showers and events to make you drool.

Stop by and say hi (although I must warn you that you might be there a while checking out all the gorgeous posts). Thanks Siobhan and Vanessa for including our party too!

Image: Hip Hooray!

Calling for Blogroll Submissions

I'm revamping the Bondville Blogroll and looking to freshen up my list of blogs about design, kids, home, and Australia. I won't be able to list them all straight away, but will be rotating and refreshing the page every few months. I'm really excited - it's going to be a great, evolving, go-to resource for Aussies interested in design.

This submission is open to both Australian and international blogs. Submission cut-off date is 30th June 2010. Email me at { stephbond at gmail dot com } if you would like to be featured on the Bondville blogroll. Please include:

* your name

* your blog name

* your blog URL

* one sentence about your blog

* category: design/kids/home/Australia

* location: state and country

* your blog banner (125px x 125px, static only, smallest size you have)

I won't be able to respond to everyone or list everyone, but will let you know directly if and when your banner appears on the site. Feel free to submit again next time I call for submissions.

I'm really looking forward to checking out all your blogs!

Image: Steph Bond

Cool Websites: One Blue Wren photography blog

Another thing I love about the ABCD meet-ups is meeting talented folks that I haven't come across before. One of those on Thursday night was the very clever Ashley; a Brisbane-based graphic designer and photographer who authors a lovely blog called One Blue Wren.

Ashley manages to capture light in her images in a way that I could never imagine. One Blue Wren is a collection of adventures, stories and memories that lure me into a dreamy state. I think you'll like it too. Get read to be wowed by the beautiful portraits of Ashley's friend Alarna on the site.

If you'd like to find out more about Ashley, check out her website, Flickr, and blog One Blue Wren, as well as her collaboration with her friend Leah - The Light Collectors. You can also purchase prints of her beautiful photography on Etsy.

Images: One Blue Wren on Etsy

Cool Websites: BloesemKids

Wow. I'm really honoured to be featured on Irene Hoof's wonderful website BloesemKids. Bloesem and BloesemKids are two of my favourite design-oriented sites - full of exciting new finds and beautifully curated by Irene.

Irene is based in the Malaysia, although originally from the Netherlands, and has started a new column on BloesemKids called Mom Story. She is profiling Moms around the world and what their daily life is like. So interesting! Please take the time to stop by and let Irene know what a great job she is doing.

And thank you so much Irene for your interest in Bondville and living in Australia. And also a huge welcome to everyone visiting from BloesemKids - you are welcome back anytime.

Image: BloesemKids

Cool Websites: Swish and Swanky

In celebration of the talented group of bloggers we have in Australia, I've been profiling some of the bloggers you need to know. With such a growth in new bloggers and writers out there, I think it's important that we support and enjoy our homegrown talent. Today I'd like to introduce you to Amanda Lonsdale from Swish and Swanky.

Based in Queensland, Amanda has rocked the international design world with her swish and swanky fabulous finds for the home. She has a fabulous eye and her blog will keep you right up to date with the interior design world. I also love to peak into Amanda's world a little, with glimpses of her daughter's bedroom, gifts she has bought for friends, and other little life inspirations that are important to her.

Pop along and say hi to Amanda at Swish and Swanky.

Check out this link for more great Aussie bloggers you need to know about.

Images: Swish and Swanky

Kreativ Blogger Award

I am so honoured to accept the Kreativ Blogger Award from the very generous Thea from Thea & Sami. The Kreativ Blogger Award requires you to nominate seven blogs that you believe deserve this award and also list seven things that you love. You can read all about seven of my favourite things and more about the seven blogs that I have nominated for this award on the About Me page.

And the passing of the award goes to: Grab Your Fork, Udessi, The Lark, The Red Thread, Frozen Brooklyn, Beets & Biscuits and Strawberry Lemonade. I hope you love reading them as much as I do!